A new study has found that American’s are more likely to die from firearms than citizens of other developed countries.

According to The American Journal of Medicine, compared to 22 other high-income nations, Americans are ten times more likely to be killed by a firearm than their counterparts in the developed world.

The study points specifically to homicides involving a gun with rates 25 times higher in the US. The overall suicide rate is on par with other high-income nations, however the U.S. gun suicide rate is eight times higher.

Researchers from the University of Nevada-Reno and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health have found that despite having similar rates of nonlethal crimes as other high-income countries, the U.S. has much higher rates of lethal violence, which is mostly driven by extremely higher rates of gun-related homicides.

According to Science Daily, homicide is the second leading cause of death for Americans 15 to 24-years of age, and the third leading cause of death among those 25 to 34-years of age. Investigators found that for these two groups, the risk relative to their counterparts in other developed nations is alarmingly elevated.

“More than two-thirds of the homicides in the U.S. are firearm homicides and studies have suggested that the non-gun homicide rate in the U.S. may be high because the gun homicide rate is high,” explained Erin Grinshteyn, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of Nevada-Reno, School of Community Health Science. “For example, offenders take into account the threat posed by their adversaries. Individuals are more likely to have lethal intent if they anticipate that their adversaries will be armed.”

From Science Daily:

Suicide is another source of gun deaths. While suicide rates for the U.S. are similar to those in other high-income countries, Americans are eight times as likely to take their own lives using a gun. Dozens of studies in the U.S. indicate that less access to guns would decrease both the U.S. gun suicide rate and our overall suicide rate.

“Differences in overall suicide rates across cities, states, and regions in the United States are best explained not by differences in mental health, suicide ideation, or even suicide attempts, but by availability of firearms,” David Hemenway, PhD, Professor, Health Policy at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health said. “Many suicides are impulsive, and the urge to die fades away. Firearms are a swift and lethal method of suicide with a high case-fatality rate.”

2 Comments

Simon Peters

February 4, 2016 at 5:17 am

How long can it be before America moves into the 21st century and installs proper gun control laws, thereby halting the annual slaughter of Americans, by Americans? The country is obsessed with an imagined threat from abroad, and yet the threat is real and is from within.

Cameron Tuehy

February 4, 2016 at 11:29 am

We also need to do a much better job at stress management. We get angry and too often just reach for the closest object to hurt the person making us angry instead of just walking away.